It needed two courageous men to start the tale of Lapponia - the entrepreneur and visionary Pekka Anttila and the jewelry designer and artist Björn Weckström. Together these men broke all the rules concerning jewelry design known in 1960´s.

It was actually silversmith (later Master silversmith) Mr. Pekka Anttila(1931 - 1985) who established Lapponia Jewelry in 1960. During the first years company manufactured ordinary jewelry, mainly bracelets and various chains. Quality was excellent and soon the company gained trust from its customers. However, the competition in jewelry markets was hard.

As a determined person Pekka Anttila had a vision and a challenge – he wanted to create something new, something unique. Anttila decided that with traditional, mass golden jewelry had no future for the company. To gain international knowledge, something more personal should be created. Pekka Anttila started to find a best solution to enter the international markets.

Pekka Anttila knew Björn Wecström during the years they spent together at a goldsmith school. He had followed Weckström´s work and was impressed by his unique touch in designing. Anttila and Weckström started their cooperation in 1963

In 1965 Lapponia Jewelry took part in their first international fair. The same year Anttila convinced Weckström to participate in the International Jewelry Contest in Rio de Janeiro, where he won the Grand Prix with his golden necklace “Flowering wall”. With its distinguished design company received international recignition and its internation operations started in 1966. Gradually the domestic markets approved this bold, unique design.

Lapponia Jewelry´s operations grew, and in 1971 Danish blacksmith and jewelry designer Poul Havgaard joined the company. Havgaard´s first silver jewelry were 3-dimensional with matte surface. Some pieces had moving components in them. Painter Juhani Linnovaara created his first white gold jewelry collection for Lapponia in 1972 and three years later, in 1975, sculptor Zoltan Popovits designed a silver chess set, each piece being an individual entity of its own.

In 1989 French artist Christophe Burger joined Lapponia Jewelry. His first collection was made of patinated white gold. Designer Pekka Hirvonen began his work with Lapponia in 2002 with yellow gold collection. Master goldsmith Chao-Hsien Kuo began her work with Lapponia in 2006 combining feminine elements to recognizable Lapponia forms.

Pekka Anttila received the National Entrepreneur Prize in 1972 for his outstanding performance in the Finnish jewelry industry. Lapponia´s efforts in the export markets received recognition in 1979, when the company was awarded with The President of Finland's Award for Export.